Thursday, February 10, 2011

I have been doing more blog reading so far this year, and one of the most inspiring was this one from Knitfinder. I love the idea of intentions rather than resolutions - and I have a sticky note on my monitor at work with a list:Exercise - Walk, Yoga, SwimCounseling, MeditationMindful Pursuits - Design, Class PlanningFuture -A New Home, Family Budget

So far, January was a bit of a blur - I had two weeks to do a month of day job work so that I could spend two weeks with my friend and mentor, Norman Kennedy. He came to visit for a week and we scanned a new set of slides - these were all warp weight loom pictures. Then we drove down to the John C. Campbell Folk School for a week of spinning class. Norman co-taught the class with Martha Owen, the resident spinner/knitter/dyer at the Folk School. Martha is another one of my favorite people, so I had a lovely, relaxing week and fell in love with a Kromski Polonaise wheel. I hope that someday one will come and live at my house.

Norman & Martha getting the class started.

We had a waulking, which is always great fun, and someone caught me in action!

Here is our whole class.

February, so far, has been some catching up from being away, starting to take regular walks again and a weekend spinning class that I taught locally at the Round Hill Arts Center. There has also been a great flurry of preparation for an exhibit that I have been asked to be a part of. I will tell you more about the exhibit in about a month when it launches, but the first task was to write a Biography and a Philosophy.

I have a brochure for the classes I teach, and that has a short bio but I needed something longer and more detailed. And the Philosophy was more of an artist's statement. I have new respect for anyone who has ever written one of these things. I wrote a draft and then my husband helped me develop and edit the second, third, eighth drafts... it took at least a week, but I'm fairly pleased with the final product.

I apologize for the teaser, but this will all be online on or around March 18th. I promise to post more information and links then!

So - upcoming I have an Acadian Weaving class at the Round Hill Arts Center on Feb. 19 & 20. There is still room in the class, but I am mailing out the warp yarn in the next day or two, so if you are interested, do not hesitate!

There is also still room in my Modular Knitting class at the Campbell Folk School March 6 - 12th. A week of knitting all manner of interesting shapes and playing with colorful yarn!

On the knitting front, I am working on a lace design for Solitude and I have a few small projects on the needles - Handsocks, a Selbu Modern hat and a Springtime in Philadelphia hat. I'm longing to cast on for a sweater, but I'm also kind of grooving on turning back to some unfinished projects. I need to decide if I want to knit any new shapes for the modular knitting class, because that is about 3 weeks away.

I have decided Not to Buy Yarn this year. I even told my husband! I have a seriously prodigious stash and it is likely that we will be moving in the next year or so. I have collected a lot of lovely yarn and most of it is earmarked for interesting projects, so I want to try to cast on some of the patterns from my queue rather than continue to add new projects. So I will try to avoid temptation, and cast on whenever I feel like it, but at the moment I'd like to finish some of the UFOs.

Weavolution

Books!

In spite of having sworn to pass up on all Jane Austen knock offs, I somehow felt that P D James might possibly get it right. Alas, I was mistaken, and I regret the hours devoted to reading this ponderous tale.

This is Daphne Du Maurier's second novel and it contains a lot of the angst and restlessness of a young man who has much to learn on his way to adulthood. A little angst goes a long way, but there is much in the writing that is evocativ...